Relationships among Class Climate, Students' Internal Help-Seeking Inclinations, Participation in Peer Help and Achievement in an Online Class

Help seeking has traditionally been studied in face-to-face settings using self-report instruments measuring learners' internal inclinations for help seeking (eg, perceived benefits and threats). Much less is known about help seeking in online learning. Furthermore, external environmental factors such as a positive climate were found to encourage help seeking. Utilizing peer-help analytics as well as self-report measures, this study simultaneously modelled the structural relationships among students' perceived class climate, internal help-seeking inclinations, help-seeking engagement, participation in peer help and performance in an online class. Results from structural equation modelling indicated that students' perceived goal structure of an online class had a significant influence on their internal help-seeking inclinations, which subsequently affected their help-seeking engagement, participation in peer help and learning outcomes. Instructors of online classes should pay particular attention to fostering a mastery-oriented climate in order to encourage help seeking and improve academic performance.